James Garner came off the bench for Manchester United to play half an hour against Partizan Belgrade.
This was Garner’s Old Trafford debut, after a previous start away at Partizan.
He was brought on in an ideal situation, with United 3-0 up and cruising to victory.
Garner didn’t let United down, helping the team keep a fourth consecutive Europa League clean sheet.
Vital warm-up
Garner might be needed at the weekend after Scott McTominay picked up an injury with 15 minutes to go.
He made 32 touches in his half hour and his defensive contribution was impressive.
Whoscored.com data shows Garner made two tackles and two interceptions. This was the same as Scott McTominay made in 74 minutes.
Fred also made two tackles in 62 minutes, but didn’t make any interceptions.
The 18-year-old was remarkably effective helping shield the back four and what is impressive is that there is so much to come from the attacking side of his game too, as his strike rate for the under-23s shows.
It’s always great to see an academy lad break through and Garner appears to have something special about him.
He won the respect of teammate Marcos Rojo as seen by their embrace after the final whistle.
Reaction
Garner’s performance impressed, which is good, because we could be seeing a lot more of him over the coming weeks…
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